Hoodwinked

Review: A few random laughs can't overwhelm terrible animation in this Shrek rip-off.

You gotta hand it to the Weinstein Brothers. They may not always offer up the best product, but they will market it well enough to make you think it's the best product. They'll even market their schlock well enough to fill the seats come opening weekend. Take the opening numbers for last weekend on Hoodwinked. The project is one of the first for the post-Miramax Weinstein run at their new production company, The Weinstein Company.

Hoodwinked is a hip, modernized retelling of the oft-told fairly-tale, Red Riding Hood. This time around, the tale is told from four perspectives to a frog detective after the participants in the chaotic situation at Granny's house each claim a different explanation. The characters are Red (Anne Hathaway), Granny (Glenn Close), The Wolf (Patrick Warburton), The Woodsman (James Belushi) and a host of furry woodland supporting cast. Other voice talent includes Andy Dick, Chazz Palmintari, Xzibit and Anthony Anderson. The film is co-written and co-directed by brothers Cory and Todd Edwards, who also voice a few characters.

Red Riding Hood returns again in CG form

Hoodwinked is computer-generated animation, but not in the way most are used to theatrically. This is not Pixar or even ghetto-Pixar, this is shockingly low tech stuff. For those who remember such CG animated shows as Reboot, Transformers Beast Wars and the short-lived return of Voltron, this is about on that level, if not a notch or two downhill. Additionally, Hoodwinked's animation is extremely ticky  a forewarning to those prone to seizures. This is one for y'all to avoid.

Moving away from the animation, and believe me, if you love great animation, you'll never get past that, this film does have a slightly imaginative story. If the idea of modernizing fairytales with pop culture references hadn't already been done in Shrek and done again in Shrek 2 and at least touched upon in every other DreamWorks CG release, it would be really groundbreaking stuff. Instead, there is a laugh here and there, smattered at points but never enough to keep you entertained or distract your focus from the doe-eyed characters and slow-moving imagery.

The Wolf dressed as Grandma and his Squirrel accomplice

Points must be awarded for Hoodwinked's most random reference, that of a nod so completely obscure as to float over the heads of almost everyone who sees the film. The Wolf wears a Lakers jersey and a faded blue hoodie  the very same outfit sported by Chevy Chase in the underrated '80s classic comedy, Fletch. And the references don't stop at Wolf's wardrobe. Entire sequences reference moments from Fletch, complete with a variation on the music from Fletch. Truly bizarre and, at least in my book, truly awesome. Props to the Edwards brothers for that at least, if for nothing else. Yeah, wait, thinking Nope, there's nothing else.

The other less original references include Extreme Sports and XXX. Who's the most unlikely character to play extreme sports? Yep, you probably already guessed it. Marking the one millionth imitation of The Matrix, we get a slow-mo bullet time action sequence. Ho-hum.

At a $15 million budget, Hoodwinked deserves at least a bit of credit. After all, were this a made for television film or a direct-to-video release, it would play all right. Kids are not discerning enough to care and parents can cook dinner or read magazines while it plays out. Theatrically, Hoodwinked just isn't up to par. The animation goes without saying, but the story is also extremely tired and the references are far too obvious (except, again, for Fletch!). The Weinstein Company is the main source to fault. Considering they only recently launched, this is quite obviously a vehicle they picked up on the backend. Instead of putting some more money into it to work out glitches and spruce it up a bit, it appears the Weinsteins simply replaced a few voice cast members with bigger names and spat the film out at a time when there would be little competition in the family animated film category. Clearly, the Weinstein M.O. mandated at Miramax, of hype over content, has gone one step further over at Weinstein Co.